Daphne Fitzgeorge to become a countess

November 29, 1915

Miss Daphne Fitzgeorge, the daughter of the late Colonel George William Augustus Fitzgeorge, is to marry the Earl of Cottenham, according to an announcement in London.

[The Marquise de Fontenoy got her facts wrong.  George Daphne Fitzgeorge's fiance was George Foster Earle, son of Mr. J. Hudson Earle of Cottenham.  The couple was married on December 9, 1915, at St. Peter's Church, Eaton Square.  The bride was given away by her brother, Lieutenant G. Fitzgeorge, RN.  She wore, according to The Times, "a gown made in the early Victorian style, and carried an old-fashioned posy of flowers.  She was attended by three children, Lady Bridget Poulett, Master Norman D'Arcy, and Master Michael Smiley, all of whom were "dressed in Kate Greenway style." Among the gifts was a "silver fruit basket sent by the Queen."]

George Fitzgeorge was the eldest of three sons of Prince George, Duke of Cambridge, and an actress Louisa Fairbrother.   Prince George married Louisa at the Church of St. John at Clerkenwell in 1847, but the marriage was invalid due to the Royal Marriages Act.  Neither Louisa nor the couple's three sons could share in the Duke of Cambridge's "honors or prerogatives."  The three sons had the surname Fitzgeorge.

The late Duke of Cambridge was Queen Victoria's first cousin and Queen Mary's uncle.